On 08/21/2014 10:38 PM, Anton Aylward wrote:
Try
cat /tmp tr /tmp od -cb /tmp
Like dd these are all FILE operations. All give the same error: "Is a directory" That's what you get when you try running a file tool on a directory.
And that's the point: it's not a limitation in the tool - whatever the tool would do with such data - but rather a limit implied by the kernel. And the info page states this clearly: `directory' Fail unless the file is a directory. Most operating systems do not allow I/O to a directory, so this flag has limited utility. You can observe it with 'strace -v dd if=/tmp iflag=directory': ... open("/tmp", O_RDONLY|O_DIRECTORY) = 3 dup2(3, 0) = 0 close(3) = 0 lseek(0, 0, SEEK_CUR) = 0 ... read(0, 0x8e5000, 512) = -1 EISDIR (Is a directory) If I remember correctly from +10 years ago, 'cat /some/dir' works on e.g. HP-UX, although the use is quite limited. Have a nice day, Berny -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org